Not Applicable
Not Applicable
The present invention is a combination airship and spacecraft that uses its lifting gas as propellant for electrically powered thrusters to achieve space flight, such electric power being supplied by beamed microwave energy from the planet surface or from space. Such electric power may also be used to heat atmospheric, lifting, propellant and fuel gases contained by the spacecraft/airship as well. The airship aspect operates to provide lift with lifting gas in one or more gas retaining structures that may change in volume. The spacecraft aspect provides control, power, services, and interior space for missions of the spacecraft/airship. An spacecraft/airship may be connected with others to form larger space structures and spacecraft.
Additional background is reviewed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,119,983, Airship/spacecraft, which is incorporated herein by this reference.
Background of the present invention is with respect to methods of providing electric power through space, within and outside of a planetary atmosphere, was reviewed in the article Beamed Microwave Power Transmission and Its Application to Space, excerpted from IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, Vol. 40, No. 6, June 1992, by William C. Brown and E. Eugene Eves, xe2x80x9ca tutorial overviewxe2x80x9d as described therein, hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cBrown and Evesxe2x80x9d.
The present invention has elements that are covered generally by class 244, aeronautics, and may be considered under the following subclasses: 3, compound aeronautical machines; 12.2, circular; 12.3, dual propulsion; 12.4, thrust tilting; 24 miscellaneous aircraft; 29, propelled aeronautical machines; 61, aircraft power plants adapted to use the sustaining gas of an airship as fuel; 97, devices for changing buoyancy of lighter-than-air craft; 125, construction of hull and internal structure of lighter-than-air craft; 126, construction of outer surface of lighter-than-air craft; and, 158, machine or structure designed for travel in the upper reaches of and/or beyond the atmosphere of a celestial body. Also to be considered is class 60, power plants, particularly subclasses 203 and 204.
The present invention is an spacecraft/airship that may use its lifting gas as propellant and as fuel for thrusters, electrically powered and fuel burning, to achieve transition from airship operation to space flight. Such thrusters may be propellant driven, fueled, or nuclear or electrically powered, which may in turn be ramjet, turbo-type, rocket type, including ion thrusters, and/or a hybrid of those types. Propeller thrusters may also be used for low altitude stabilization and maneuver.
The lifting component of the airship comprises one or more gas retaining structures which may maintain a lower pressure than exists external to the structure. A gas retaining structure may have its own framework in order to restrict or allow for expansion and contraction. A gas retaining structure may also have a framework which is dynamic, allowing for controlled changes of volume and shape of the framework and redistribution of framework stress. A gas retaining structure may also be compound, that is, comprised of a plurality of other gas retaining structures having one or more of the characteristics described above. The preferred embodiment integrates a microwave antennae for receiving beamed microwave energy with the gas retaining structures in order to supply the spacecraft/airship and its electrically powered thrusters with electric power.
The spacecraft/airship may include dynamic gas retaining structures with expandable frameworks and gas heating to maximize the altitude to which the lifting gas will be effective to lift the airship. The present invention may use the lifting gas as propellant for electrically powered thrusters, such as ion thrusters and arcjets, as well as fuel for other types of thrusters, such as conventional and turbo-rocket, which then power on the flight of the entire spacecraft/airship. Electrical power for thrusters and heating of gas in the gas retaining structures or other containers may be provided by beamed microwave from the planet surface or from other spacecraft. The present invention provides a single-stage launch vehicle which can use the airship structures as components of space-frames and larger spacecraft.
The preferred embodiment places the thrusters on a structure which may include controls, machinery, tanks for propellant, fuel, and/or oxidizer, and space for crew, passengers, cargo, or equipment, or all of them, which shall be hereinafter referred to as the spacecraft body. The spacecraft body may be separate from but connected to a gas retaining structure, or may be connected by integration with one or more gas retaining structures.
Objects of the invention are to provide: an airship which has sufficient buoyancy to rise vertically to an altitude of neutral buoyancy in the region of the stratosphere/ionosphere; a spacecraft/airship which uses its lifting gas as propellant and/or fuel for thrusters to power it to space flight; and, a spacecraft/airship that can descend at planetary destinations from space flight as an atmospherically buoyant craft. It is also an object of the invention to reduce g-forces and atmospheric friction heating during ascent and descent.